Nag-gate drug fear

THE horse meat scandal sparked a new safety alert last night over fears a
banned slimming drug could be in the food chain.

Experts say tainted beef is NOT being tested for clenbuterol — a Class
C drug.

It is among a range of vet medicines that can cause dangerous side-effects in
humans such as heart palpitations, breathing difficulties and dizziness.

But dodgy beef dishes found to contain horse on British shelves are only being
checked for cancer-causing painkiller phenylbutazone — often called bute.

Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who is on the Commons Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs Committee, said: “We need to be testing for these drugs. There are a
whole range of medicines given to horses that aren’t meant to enter the
human food chain.

“The most common is bute — but that doesn’t mean that the others are not as
bad or even worse.”

Clenbuterol — Hollywood’s weight loss drug of choice — is used to treat
breathing problems in horses but crooked farmers use it to burn fat on the
animals.

Meanwhile, three men arrested over the horse meat scandal have been released
on bail.

The Food Standards Agency has passed evidence from two premises in Tottenham,
North London, and one in Hull to Europol — the EU law enforcement agency.

The FSA says it is unlikely the exact number of Brits who have unwittingly
eaten horse will ever be known.